


ready when you are

by rockerlullaby



Category: Rigel Black Series - murkybluematter
Genre: F/M, Fake Marriage, Getting Together, catching feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:07:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27562780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockerlullaby/pseuds/rockerlullaby
Summary: Harry and Aldon have a talk before their wedding.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Aldon Rosier
Comments: 18
Kudos: 51
Collections: Rigel Black Exchange Round 2





	ready when you are

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DistractedDaydreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistractedDaydreamer/gifts).



Harriet Potter was a girl.

And she looked like one would expect a girl to look, too, standing in front of the mirror in her wedding dress, looking for all the world like a real life bride.

“It’s bad luck to see me before the wedding,” she said with a wry smile, watching Aldon through the mirror. He stood by the door, looking at Harry as if she personally stomped on his chest.

“You look beautiful,” he breathed. A beat went by, in which Harry avoided his gaze by fiddling with the lace of her dress and Aldon desperately wracked his brain for something else to say. He coughed an awkward laugh. “Where did you get that dress?”

Harry ran her hands down her thighs, feeling the fabric. Her dress wasn’t white, but cream. She wondered if it was a dig on Pansy’s part when she handed it to her, but she decided that it wasn’t. Pansy _was_ very angry, but she would never Harry’s wedding color scheme based on a grudge. Maybe.

And the dress was absolutely beautiful. Even if the color was a dig against her, the quality of the dress outweighed it by miles. The sleeves creeped down her arms, the lace kissing her knuckles. And the satin of the skirt shone beautifully under the candlelight. It was elegant and sweet—bridelike.

“Pansy rampaged through the high couture boutiques in France to bag this one,” she said with a small ironic smile. “The clerks are now afraid of her.”

Aldon gave a fond smile.

“Sounds like the girl.”

Harry’s gaze was drawn back to the mirror, as if magnetized by standing there. Her mother spelled makeup on her face; her lashes longer and thicker, her lips tinted red, her lids lined. Somehow, it made her feel her age all the more.

Tomorrow, she turned seventeen. Which meant she could be tried and sentenced to Azkaban. Which meant that any entitled pureblood could ask for her hand. Which meant that she was an adult.

“No one will take you to Azkaban,” Aldon said, his low voice startling Harry. At some point, while she was lost in her thoughts, he walked closer to her, hovering over her shoulder, standing behind the girl in the mirror.

“I know,” Harry said, smiling beatifically.

Aldon rolled his eyes.

“They won’t. Everyone who cares about you is in this wedding. The secret goes no further.”

“The secret is already so fuc—” Harry exhaled angrily. How could she be so careless? Every single one of her guests knew her secret. There were thirty-two people outside, all in the know of the ruse. How the fuck had she let it get this far?

“Hey,” he said softly, holding his hand out.

Harry lifted her own hand to meet his, catching the tiny object that fell out when he opened his hand in a scoop.

“For you,” he said, eyes… weirdly soft.

Harry was grinning back before she even realized. Then she looked down at her hand.

“This is—” She tilted her head to examine it close. “It is!”

“I know,” Aldon said smugly.

“There’s no way everyone agreed,” Harry said, excitement and relief mixing in her voice. “That room is _chockful_ of Slytherins. There’s no way.”

“They _all_ agreed.”

“But—I mean, there’s other proof.”

Aldon raised an eyebrow.

“And that’s on you. I just tied up about thirty-nine loose ends.”

Harry startled.

“Oh. You—you’re forgetting too?”

Aldon took a step back, burying his hands in his pockets.

“I mean… I know you hate people knowing about the ruse. And one loose end is as bad as thirty-eight.”

“I don’t think of you as a loose end,” Harry whispered, unable to meet his eyes.

“You don’t?” He paused, and Harry didn’t dare look at him to ascertain his expression. “I-I mean, thanks. I appreciate it. More than you know. But this wedding—I just don’t think you shouldn’t have to sacrifice your secrets along with your freedom to marry whoever you chose.”

“You’re wrong.”

Aldon looked at her, wary.

“How?”

“I didn’t like you much, when we met,” Harry admitted. “You were rude and your only purpose was to get a reaction of people.”

“To be fair, people react so nicely.

“And you kept trying to dig out my secrets.”

Aldon balanced his head from one side to the other.

“You were very suspicious.”

“And you were very nosy. And that one time in the common room—”

“I am very sorry about that!” he said quickly, his eyes serious as he met Harry’s. “You—I’m sorry. I know it made you uncomfortable at the time and, no matter my intentions, I should have been more mindful about what you wanted.”

Harry smiled softly.

“My point is,” she said, “that I am choosing you.” Harry’s smile grew as Aldon’s eyes widened. “The Marriage Law would have stolen my ability to choose but, right now, I choose you. I _choose_ you. Marrying you gives me time to breathe… but it also gives me, as strange as it sounds, a _husband_. And I don’t know where we go from here. But I believe… and I _want_ us—to be more than a fake marriage.” Shyly, Harry took a step forward, her potions boots almost touching Aldon’s polished dress shoes. She looked up to him and tangled her fingers with his at their sides. “And, for that, I need my husband to remember my wins and losses.”

Aldon couldn’t look away from Harry, helplessly drinking her in. He didn’t even notice his eyes were teary. He didn’t notice his large grin. He didn’t notice her getting closer to him—even as he drew closer to her.

The kiss was short and sweet. Barely a peck. But it left the two children breathless and clinging to each other a tight hug.

“Harry, baby—” Lily peeked into the room, her lips pressing together when she saw them hugging. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” she said, more out of politeness than actual feeling, emphazised by her pulling Harry away from Aldon and into the dresser chair. “Sorry, kids. We’ve still got to wrangle the Potter hair into shape. And it’s bad luck your here in the room,” she said airily, nearly waving Aldon off.

Aldon chuckled at took the hint, trying to be optimistic about the prospect of convincing his future mother-in-law to like him.

“I would really like him to stay, mum,” Harry said, the girl in the mirror smiling at her mum. She looked radiant, more like a bride. Surer with Aldon by her side.

And Harry was hopeful.

**Author's Note:**

> I like this pairing a lot and I wish there were more content for it, so I was glad to write it! Hope you enjoyed it, Daydreamer.


End file.
